I am making a birthday cake for my nephew for his 16th birthday. The birthday boy will be going to Paris with his friends for the summer as a gift from his parents so I thought making a 2 tiered suitcase would be perfect but I will also be making 100 cake pops, an 8 inch with basketball on top for his brother who is also having a birthday. The party is for Friday Night. But, I also have a 2 tier cake (8,6 inch), 100 cake pops to do for a friend Sunday afternoon party. I've never done anything like this because I've recently just started. Eventhough, it's for family I still wanna make a good impression and not to mention the 175 guest that will be attending.

How far in advance can I make the cake pops so I can at least get that out of the way? I've heard different things like putting them in freezer for storage to only putting in the fridge so I'm confused about that. For the suitcase, I was thinking of doing a half sheet for the bottom tier(12x1, and quarter sheet for the top. I've never covered a cake this big with fondant before. Will the fondant be okay and not too heavy? I was worried about tearing at the corners for the rectangle shape.
I saw a tutorial on sugarteachers where they stick the dry fondant panels to the sides. Can I just cover the whole thing with fondant instead and draw a line with a tool for the luggage opening then add the hardwares? Anybody have a tutorial for the suitcase?

Sorry for all the questions, but I've been looking around the web for answers.

Thanks

Wow! Good luck with all you're doing. My advice is to just take a deep breath and get started. You can make cake pops at least a week in advance with no problem. When I make them for family, we keep them around for weeks at room temp and they´re still edible, so you can start those right away. I think the half- and quarter-sheet cakes sound like good sizes for the suitcase cake. I've covered even bigger cakes than that with a single piece of fondant with no problem. I´ve also made suitcase cakes and marked the opening with a straight edge of some kind - a nice straight spatula or a metal ruler (here's a link to the one I posted on CC: http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1692904/suitcases ). . Where you have to spend a little time is on the handles, straps, locks, hinges and buckles or whatever you're using to decorate the suitcases with. You can make the handles, buckles, hinges and locks out of gumpaste several days ahead, too. I would also bake everything way in advance and freeze your cakes until you need them. Hope some of this helps!

I forgot to say that I'm sorry I don't have a tutorial for this. All the hardware (hinges, buckles, locks) were made with different cutters I already had. The screws in the hinges were made with a round icing tip and then a straight line through the middle of that with the tip of a spatula. The handles were all made freehand and I made the straps out of fondant and used that little serrated wheel to mark the stitches on them. The trickiest part was putting the straps through the buckles, but once the buckles are good and dry all you have to do is work slowly and be very patient. Please PM me if you'd like any more information.